In The Souls of Black Folk, author W.E.B. Du Bois discusses the struggles African Americans have faced in the American society for years. He presents the idea of double consciousness and says, “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” African Americans have made huge strides for racial equality and social justice since the first Civil Rights Movement in 1960. Despite being better off today, African Americans still remain unequal to those of the white population. Racial inequalities remain a prevailing issue in the United States, the minority still faces racial disparities in wealth, unemployment rates, poverty rates, housing patterns, and educational opportunities.
The United States has seen incredible changes to the daily life of African Americans since the 1960’s however, racial equality still remains a work in progress. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
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The rate of unemployment among blacks is twice as high than the unemployment rate of the white population. Currently the jobless rates among whites is 6.6 percent, among blacks is 12.6 (“Racial, Gender Pay Gaps…”). Unemployment among African Americans who held a college degree still remained distinctively elevated compared to whites. In 2013, a study indicated that 12.4 percent of college graduates between the age of 22 and 27 were unemployed. For all white college graduates in the same age range, the unemployment rate stood at just 5.6 percent. This data points to the fact even African Americans who attend an institute are still more than twice as likely to be unemployed than a white counterpart (“African-Americans With College Degrees…”). The rise in unemployment among African Americans leads to the rising poverty rates of the